Besides what is different above, I'm looking for a different look on the interior... I've decided to move away from the 2 tone look mostly because both door panels have severe aging/sun damage issues - look @ seam just above armrest/door pull

The panel has already been heated to try to make the "whiting"(or sun damage) of the plastic go away... with no luck - it still looks like crap. I could use a vinyl dye, but in that location it'll just scratch off.... sooooo

Recently sidewayz (Blake) "found" an AE71 in the Sherwood pick and pull. It was/is a fully loaded coupe(body like mine). ALL of the interior was there..., but do to some overzealous destructive (excess, and angry profanity) , the driverside door panel was TORN in half under the car!

Here is what remained...

I managed to get everything BUT the driverside door panel.... note I even grabbed the door pulls

She's got 5400 miles on the clock so far...... 189514 @ time of purchase, now with 194913

In the mean time, I've decided what I'll be doing with the interior...... I've been going back and forth with the interior for almost a year now, part of me likes the OEM look, especially since I have the OEM rear privacy cover

And part of me wants something else...

The part that wants something else has won and to do that I'll need a little bit of custom work performed on the floor pan over the rear springs

note the red arrow is pointing to a taped over hole, the blue arrow is pointing to the hole itself, with the tape removed. The plan is to weld in a pair of nuts to these places, and along with the holes pointed @ by the purple arrows (nuts are already in here) I will build my self a wooden bed that goes from the back of the car, all the way to just behind the front seats. The area that was the rear seats will now be an enclosed, lockable storage area - either side openable independently of the other side. The holes in the cross member (black arrows) that the rear seat had slipped into will now be used as a place for the small locks to grab and latch onto

Here is the initial template for the rear beds main structure. The front 2 enclosures will each have a piano hinge attached to the front edge, while the back, over the spare tire, will have a single much longer piano hinge so that easy access of the spare tire is not compromised.

Initials plans for the rear bed, or platform include some form of tie downs so that they will securely hold whatever I decide to carry. Ideas on this are either brass pull up rings, or possible mounting roof rack rails to the bed itself with their accompanying slideable/lockable tiedowns

Oh... and almost slipping my mind... note the refinished rear interior panels now that they have been reconditioned

from another forum wrote:

The rear interior bits look nice, but it seems like a very bad idea to make a storage flatbed in there with the panels in place. They'll take a beating whenever you decide to haul something big in there. Which would be a pity of those nice parts.

oldeskewltoy wrote:

Initials plans for the rear bed, or platform include some form of tie downs so that they will securely hold whatever I decide to carry. Ideas on this are either brass pull up rings, or possible mounting roof rack rails to the bed itself with their accompanying slideable/lockable tiedowns

Something like this... (preliminary for now) likely using just 2, or maybe 3 rails

oldeskewltoy wrote:

I'll need a little bit of custom work performed on the floor pan over the rear springs

Above, the black arrows are pointing to the custom mounts prior to welding them in. The custom nuts are a pair of 8mm nuts welded to fender washers. The copper color is a weld-through coating

This view shows all the main hard points for mounting the center section of the new floor. note all of the holes now have bolts. The next step will be cutting an 3/8" OSB board in the shape of the template shown earlier, and then figuring out where the holes will need to be in the OSB board to line up with the new mounts just added. The black is to protect the metal from any decay

Hmmmmmm, been doing some research for JohnnyD since his rear diff is whining, and he was looking for a replacement. My car, AE71 coupe, had 2 rear diff ratio options(per toyodiy) - 3.72, and a 3.58. I ASSUMED that she has the 3.72... but I ASSUMED WRONG.

The final drive gear in my car is listed as a S374(bottom row in photo above). Go to the above link, and the S374 breaksdown to a 6.38" 4 pinion diff, but NOT a 3.72 final drive, but a 3.58 final drive

I then remember the 1983 EPA standards for the AE71 coupe was 35mpg highway, I never understood why??? 1983 EPA guide - http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/pdfs/1983_feg.pdfAND.... 5th gear has truly been an O/D for me, where the only time I ever need to use it is on the highway

It now makes perfect sense why... I'm running around with a 3.58 final drive

This keeps getting more and more odd... Originally I thought it had a 3.9, then I thought it to be a 3.7, now I find out it really is a 3.58... and I wonder just how fast a 1/4 she could run(15.77 as she currently sits w the 3.58) *IF* the gearing in her was more acceleration oriented... like a 3.9, 4.1, or 4.30

We shall see... The LEEN adapter is on its way, and I hope to get a 3.9 "T"(6.7") gear set before too long. I'll try to get this all assembled and ready for spring 2012 drag race season and do a few more runs to see how well she can do with gearing better matched to the engines character

I decided NOT to purchased the LEEN shifter relocation parts, for I do not plan on moving the J160 shifter

The shifter hole in the AE86 and the AE71 use a T50 shifter, which uses a shifter that is bent toward the rear

meanwhile the J160 shifter is far more vertical

To allow for this discrepancy, I've decided to use the J160 shifter in the closer(more forward) of its 2 positions, this moves the shifter back 5" from where the stock T50 would poke through the floor

This will place the J160 shifter(the part the driver grabs) in a slightly more rearward position compared to where the T50 shifter is now... maybe an 1" to 2" more rearward, but that is far better for my chosen driving style.

For those who like visual help... The center of the T50 shifter in the view below is @ 13", the placement would be 5" back or right @ the gap between the raised section for the shifter and the laterial/leading edge of seat mounting reinforcement

In the photo above, with the handbrake up, it is tough to see, so try to use your imagination to visualize the handbrake arc.... but the lowered handbrake will get very close to the shifter if the shifter is 5" toward the rear.

So, to better fit the new shifter location, I decided to shorten the handbrake. XNC was @ a local junkyard and he picked up a E7 handbrake assembly for me... thank you Johnny. I then proceeded to shorten the assembly by almost 2"

I'll finish this by drilling the rivet center and use a screw to secure the rivet.

LOOOOOOOOOOOONG story, grab a bag of chips/popcorn and get settled in.

December 2011 - in the mail comes my vehicle registration. Along with the registration is the need to take Surreptitious back through emissions. Now to remind readers, part of this build was to build a car that was fun, and yet still emissions compliant. In fact emissions compliance was why I went mild on this engine in the first place!!!

January 2012 - I'm a little nervous about going through emissions because it has been nearly 2 years, and all the time I've ben "tuning" on her. Well I got up the courage and drove over to Sherwood DEQ and went through and got the following.......

The above is a FAIL sheet. Follow the corresponding highlighter to see my readings and what the standard are... 220 HC standard, I'm pumping out 1968 :tard: That is 8 TIMES the standard!!! The CO isn't helping here either, the standard is 1%, and I'm @ 3.2477% - a factor of more than 3.2 TIMES. This is NOT a clean car... not by a LOOOOOONG shot!

Being mid January 2012, and having about 6 weeks to fix this, I call Bob and see if he has time to set up the tune, this time without a 9mm vacuum leak!!! I speak to Bob, and he is massively booked, so booked that his earliest appointment time for me would be mid to late March.... outside of my inspection window

February 2012 - Another solution had to be found, and found quickly. I put a few feelers out and I decided on PSI in Hillsboro - http://www.tunedbypsi.com. Jason is the owner of PSI, cool guy, knows his stuff. I brought over Surreptitious, her laptop with the FJO software, and left them there for a week. This was cool by him because he could fit Surreptitious around other clients... and so save me some cash

I kept in contact with Jason all week long via email, he began the tune with a baseline run (PSI still has all 39 runs... yes 39!) At first he began to pull out ignition timing... those that remember my MAP peaked @ 35 degrees, well Jason begain pulling timing and seeing no loss of power while on the dyno... he was able to pull 9 degrees of timing from the map while retaining ALL of the power. Peak ignition timing on WOT is now a very "Easy" 26 degrees. So with the ignition side set, he looks @ the wideband and it is not operating correctly... The baseline run saw afr around 16..... 16 That lean, with 35 degrees ignition... and still no ping!!! Amazing what deshrouding of the chambers can do to minimize ping

Once an ignition map was laid in, Jason rebuilt the fuel MAP, he scrapped all the previous info from the fuel side, all the other maps that were in the system and began by figuring out the VE (volumetric effficency) of my engine. He built an entirely new fuel map that as of now is NOT using the wideband for fine tuning. Although I do expect this to change....

So with all of PSI wizardry, the best they could get the emissions down to was the 1400s... better, but still WAAAAY off the mark. After speaking to Jason it was agreed that the next step to get her clean was a new cat, and if that failed, pull the cams, for a set of stockers so the overlap would be less. This last option was not my favorite, and although easier then swapping an entire engine, I was hoping that the cat would fix the issue.

Earlier today - I went back to Darrell's Economy Muffler (originally recommend by Arnie Loyning), showed him my original emissions cert from 2010 (seen below)

and then I showed him the failed cert. He looked at me, looked at the car, and said , "I remember you and that little hotrod... what you'd expect a single stage cat to keep all that overlap(cam duration) clean for 2 years?" They set me up with a new cat, a heavy metal dual stage 2.5" cat. The shop owner recommended a 30 min drive to fully heat up the new cat... I drive back to the west side of town, back to Sherwood DEQ....

The numbers are now 78 for the HC, and .1% for the CO

she now passed, and is good for another 2 years. I'll now be prepared, that if she fails in 2 years to take a close look at the cat.

oldeskewltoy wrote:

(PSI still has all 39 runs... yes 39!)

for those number hounds... her peaks were 144whp, and 110#/ft WITH the airbox and air intake tube on.

The 145whp and 112#/ft were on Bob's dyno dynamics, but those peaks were done with the airbox, and air intake elbow removed. For those who like to calculate dyno differences... when Bob ran my engine with air intake and airbox, she planted around 138whp and 107 ft/#s

What has improved is the torque curve.... All the dips have been removed, In some areas Jason raised the torque over 6#/ft at certain rpm levels! She pulls long and strong with 100#/ft(@ the wheels) for over 5000 rpm!!!

You'll have to use your imagination some... the other horizontal piece still needs finishing, and re-assembly. The dashboard is now fully covered in Brazillion Cherry. A few swipes with tung oil and the new dash blends nicely with the Nardi

You'll have to use your imagination some... the other horizontal piece still needs finishing, and re-assembly. The dashboard is now fully covered in Brazillion Cherry. A few swipes with tung oil and the new dash blends nicely with the Nardi

That isn't some sticky backed simulation, or vinyl..... that is real Brazilian (correctly spelled this time) cherry veneer... 2mm thick!

David.... remember David??? my body guy? Well besides body work and custom work, he also builds guitars... from rare and unusual woods. Many of his guitars sell for as much as $5000!

Well, I asked David last year if he could help me get the dash panels of Surreptitious to be covered in a complimentary wood to go along with the Nardi wheel.

It took him some time... He called me and told me that my Dremel equipment would do a better job then his larger equipment, and so I went and picked up the pieces that were disassembled, and with the wood needing to be sized correctly (the openings, and adjustment gaps)

note far right is the roughed out hole for the glove box release mechanism... In the final view of this post you can better see the work I did for proper shape and size... along with fully re-assembling the vents

All the right side needs now is a bit of tung oil so it'll match the panel that lays in front of the driver.....

I purposely left a small amount of material along the top so the bent edge would retain some of its original structure.

A better view of the modification from inside....

What can't be seen in the 2 panel above is the floor from below.

The floor from below shows 2 stages of work. The first stage shows the lengthening of the transmission tunnel, the low view shows clearancing for the protruding shift rod. Look above @ the end view of the 2 transmissions... note the rod poking out of the rubber booty on the transmission on the right?? That is the shift rod... ***

The radius-ed view shows an OEM structural shape in the floor that will act as a natural pocket for the shift extension to operate in. The top view shows without this pocket there might be clearance issues for the shift rod.

Now for a few measurements... and why that radius is important. First, the most important thing I'm trying to NOT modify... is the interior crossmember. I DO NOT want to remove structure.... these cars are flimsy enough. I don't mind taking a bit of material... as long as I can add a few welds and make is sound.

THE CRUCIAL measurement... That is the distance from the metal plate @ the back of the engine to my now elongated shifter opening - 31 9/16"

The length of the shifter support bucket in the LEEN J160 in OST configuration......... 31 1/4"

Now.... if you "see" spacially... you can see that the shift rod moves in relation to the bucket

Sooo.... length (body opening and shifter cup) appears to be pretty good, the opening should allow the shifter cup to clear the cross member. So now that the car is prepared to accept the new transmission, we need to see what the transmission needs to fit the car.........

a quick 2 panel show the current mounts for the 2 transmissions. There are a few obvious issues to overcome....

1) the J160 mount is about 3 11/16" further back then the mount on the T50 (AE71 T50 mount)

and 2) the J160 mount hangs down significantly more (almost 2" lower overall), and 3) The T50 mount is NOT spaced evenly from side to side, while the J160 is evenly spaced.

Because of the amount of drop, AND the uneven side to side spacing the original cross member was discarded... to begin the brainstorming once again.......

If you stare long enough... the J160 mount begins to "tell" you the mount it "wants" (Thanks to Miura (Jeff) he saw it first)

So now that the mount has designed its own shape... we let the car design the rest of the shape... now the problem we have is the J160 mount is too far back to fit any of the area Toyota designed to support transmissions in the AE71....

You can see the T50 cross member fits the 13" span by how clean it is.. also if you look carefully I've drawn a small area inside the trans hole that represents the location of the J160 mount in relation to the floor

So the mount needs to sweep, or "wing" forward.....

Yes... that is corrugated paper for now, the mount itself is being built in 1/8" plate... I should have it for test fitment on Wednesday. Once the crossmember has been sized, gusset supports will be added to reinforce the plate.

I get a call last night(tuesday) David tells me he didn't have any 1/8"(11 gauge), he did have 1/4" plate and he went on to say he had "built" the first prototype using said 1/4" plate.........

That is a wee bit more than I needed(MASSIVE), and he also got the dimensions off a bit. Sooo... today we went out to his welding supply company and bought a 12 gauge piece of steel so that he can properly build it. We discussed the dimensions and I expect the 2nd attempt to be far better.